Rajputana, Bihar, Central India, Dekkan and the Konkan and South Peninsula. In Manipur.
There are many varieties of this in India, north and south. The description given by Trimen of variety Sapid a is about the best suited for the plant known in the Konkan.
The leaves of the Indian plant are deciduous. Gamble says they fall in January-February, and the new foliage appears in April and May. Flowers from March-November. In Ceylon, the flowering time is January and February. The trees growing in the forests of the Sewalik Division, Mussoorie, and Malkot Hills and in Jaunsar are deciduous ; the bark whitish- grey, says Kanjilal. Trimen says it is a small tree, with long simple spinous twigs on the young branches and often large, compound, branched spines on the trunk. Bark rather smooth, grey; young shoots pubescent. Leaves 2-3 in., broadly ovate, acuminate, obtuse, acute at base, more or less crenate-serrate, glabrous or pubescent on the veins beneath, thin. Petioles ¼ in., often pubescent. Flowers small, in little few-flowered axillary raceme clusters; male flower sepals reflexed, ciliate; female flower sepals very small, ciliate; disk annular. Ovary globular; stigmas 5-6, nearly sessile, recurved. Berry globular, ½ in., diam., pulpy, smooth, marked with scars of fallen stigmas. Fruit red or brown, dark inky, when ripe. Seeds 4-6, strongly lobulated.
Parts used : — The seeds, gum, bark and fruit.
Uses : — According to Sanskrit writers, the fruits are sweet, appetising and digestive. They are given in jaundice and enlarged spleen (U. C. Dutt)
After child-birth among natives in the Deccan, the seeds are ground to powder with turmeric, and rubbed all over the body to prevent rheumatic pains from exposure to damp winds. (Dymock.)
The gum is given along with other ingredients for cholera.
The bark is applied to the body along with that of Albizzia, at intervals of a day or so during intermittent fever, in Chutia Nagpur (Revd. A. Campbell). The Species of Albizzia is not mentioned (K. R. K.).
